Police to investigate why former DG could not open a case after break-in
Johannesburg - Acting National Police Commissioner Khomotso Phahlane on Wednesday said the police would be investigating why former social development department director general Zane Dangor could not open a case following a break-in at his home on Monday.
Dangor told News24 that he received a call from his daughter saying two cars, one white and one brown, had pulled up outside their home in Florida Park, Johannesburg.
Suspects told his son and daughter that they were there to fix something and when his domestic worker approached, the men grabbed her by the throat.
His son tried to fend the men off but the men retaliated and his children managed to flee, locking themselves in a room before calling ADT Security.
The men allegedly went through the entire house but took nothing.
"Police did not open a case because nothing was taken from the home," Dangor told News24.
Phahlane was asked why police could not open a case on the Dangor matter during a press briefing about the break-in at the Office of the Chief Justice on Wednesday morning.
He said he had listened to what had been said in the media and he was going to follow up on the matter.
'A crime was committed'
"If nothing was taken, it does not necessarily mean that there was no crime committed, there were people that were foreign to that house...
"There is a crime called attempted, it is an attempted robbery or burglary."
Phahlane promised to pursue the matter to establish the identities of the officers who dissuaded Dangor from opening a case.
"I need to understand what he means by he was not able to report that case, we need to know who told him that, so that we can get a better understanding of what happened because without the facts, I am not able to answer."
He said currently police did not have evidence that the break-in at Dangor's home and the break-in at the Office of the Chief Justice were linked.
Earlier this month Dangor resigned from the department due to a breakdown in his working relationship with Minister Bathabile Dlamini.
Dangor was appointed director general in November 2016. He had been special advisor to the minister since 2010, according to the department's website.
He said he thought that the break-in was an act of intimidation.
